Alexander: Send National Guard to border

WASHINGTON – Sen. Lamar Alexander said Thursday that President Barack Obama still lacks a “serious plan” for addressing the border crossings by Central American children and should consider calling out the National Guard.

Alexander, a Republican running for re-election, said a meaningful plan would propose securing the Rio Grande River sector of the U.S. border with Mexico, sending children home safely and changing a 2008 law regarded as interfering with a solution.

An estimated 57,000 have crossed since Oct. 1, 2013.

To secure the border, Obama should utilize the National Guard, following the lead of former President George W. Bush, who used the guard to help U.S. Customs and Border Protection reverse a surge of illegal immigration in 2006, the Tennessee lawmaker said.

“President Bush’s efforts paid off,” Alexander said as the Senate Appropriations Committee met to consider a $3.7 billion spending request from Obama to deal with the crisis.

“Operation Jump Start (2006) is now widely credited as making the southwest border more secure.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has made the same suggestion about the National Guard and Obama has said he “would be happy” to consider the idea.

Alexander’s comments came as he continues to get criticized on immigration issues by state Rep. Joe Carr of Lascassas, one of his Aug. 7 Republican primary opponents.

“Is this this the same Lamar Alexander who threw out the welcome mat for illegal aliens when he voted for the Gang of Eight amnesty bill?” asked Kevin Broughton of the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a group backing Carr.

He was referring to comprehensive immigration reform legislation that passed the Senate in June 2013 with support from Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker, Tennessee’s two Republican senators.

The National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration group, said the recent border crossings are another argument for immigration reform.

Sending the National Guard “is not an appropriate response. This is a humanitarian crisis,” said Cathleen Farrell, spokeswoman for the group.

When Obama sent guard troops to the border in 2010, the National Immigration Forum called it “political posturing” and “a waste of federal resources.”

But Alexander pointed to a Government Accountability Office report that said Bush’s use of the National Guard helped apprehend 186,814 undocumented aliens in 2006.

Alexander also called for cutting off foreign aid to countries that don’t help with the safe return of the children to their Central American homes.

He also proposed changes in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to make it easier to return the children.

Meanwhile, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, will join Congressman Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., on a tour Saturday of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Unaccompanied Alien Children facility located at Fort Sill, Okla.

Blackburn has joined 32 other House Republicans in sending a letter to Obama, urging him to end his 2012 executive order that granted deportation stays to children brought into the county illegally by their parents.